The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Verbena plant, botanically known as Verbena hybrida, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Sunmaricoho’.
The new Verbena plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Higashiomi, Shiga, Japan. The objective of the breeding program is to create new compact, upright and mounding Verbena plants that are freely-branching and have white-colored flowers.
The new Verbena plant originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in September, 2006 in Higashiomi, Shiga, Japan of a proprietary selection of Verbena hybrida identified as code number VW416, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary selection of Verbena hybrida identified as code number 02H-11-2, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Verbena plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled greenhouse environment in Higashiomi, Shiga, Japan in October, 2007.
Asexual reproduction of the new Verbena plant by terminal cuttings in a controlled environment in Higashiomi, Shiga, Japan since October, 2007 has shown that the unique features of this new Verbena plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.